CD reviews: Lionel Richie, Good Old War

R&B songwriters have been cribbing from Lionel Richie’s melodies and arrangements for years. Nashville, too, reveres Richie. “Tuskegee,” his new album — named after his Deep South hometown — is an expression of Music City admiration. Country stars from the recently minted (Jason Aldean, Billy Currington) to the legendary (Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett) queue up to re-do Richie’s best-known songs as duets with him. Perhaps they’re too deferential: Aside from a banjo here and a slide guitar there, most barely leave marks on the originals. It’s the exceptions that make “Tuskegee” more than just a pleasant trip down memory lane: Nelson’s turn on “Easy” adds a sense of desperation and defiance that wasn’t apparent in the original, Aldean adds some needed muscle to “Say You, Say Me,” and Shania Twain’s take on “Endless Love” substitutes country-pop fire for Diana Ross’ cool. Richie sounds energized and his close harmonies — particularly with Darius Rucker on “Stuck on You” — are superb. Best is Little Big Town’s rendition of “Deep River Woman,” which plays like a lost Fleetwood Mac classic.

— Tris McCall

Los Pajardos Perdidos: The South American Project
L’Arpeggiata (Virgin)

L’Arpeggiata’s “Los Pajardos Perdidos” is a strange bird. Showing the impact of early European musical traditions in South America, the soft thrum of theorbo, baroque harp and harpsichord often attaches to strong rhythms. Director Christina Pluhar guides listeners with a rundown of instruments, dance forms and their origins in the liner notes. In the vigorous “Montilla,” a driving beat tumbles out against wailing vocals. The rapidfire singing in the colorfully orchestrated “El curruchà” also charms. There is striking variety here, including a few selections with a bright sound calling to mind Caribbean music. A contrapuntal prelude by Tarquinio Merlua leads compellingly into a modern song by Adela Gleijer. Among mostly pop-oriented singers, countertenor Phillippe Jaroussky adapts well, sounding fairly natural in folk melodies. He knows how to build intensity throughout a slow-building number. A drawback: A few ballads verge into easy-listening territory, particularly in the verses of the title track, an arrangement of an Astor Piazzolla piece.

— Ronni Reich

Come Back As Rain
Good Old War (Sargent House)

Fans of Good Old War’s prior albums may bemoan the lack of innovation on “Come Back As Rain,” the trio’s latest. The band’s mildly experimental folk-rock excursions have been retired in favor of straightforward, hummable campfire songs. Even dextrous drummer Tim Arnold has simplified some of his parts. But the band’s vocal arrangements are as splashy as they’ve ever been — and their newfound attentiveness to melody means the harmonies never fail to get traction. Nothing on “Come Back As Rain” is there merely because it’s pretty, and that’s a change for the better. Efforts to capture the magic of Crosby, Stills and Nash (“Touch the Clouds”), “Workingman’s”-era Grateful Dead (“It Hurts Every Time”) and especially Simon and Garfunkel (“Amazing Eyes”) often succeed. The lyrics remain a work in progress — but when Arnold, Keith Goodwin and Dan Schwartz coast together into a singalong chorus like gleeful kids holding hands on a water slide, you’ll forgive the occasional clichés and clunky rhymes. Well, maybe not the one about the house built with love and steel. But Graham Nash himself was not above that sort of thing.
— Tris McCall